Employer and employee relations

Employer and employee relations

1. Collective bargaining

   • the situation when the management team and workers have representatives who negotiate on the terms and conditions of employment is collective bargaining
   • large organisations don’t have the time to negotiate with individuals employers
   • for both workers and mangers, having employer and employee representatives to negotiate is better
   • sometimes the collective bargaining system may not work and an industrial dispute can happen
   • a common way for workers to taken action is to have a strike, it is when employers stop working to fore an employer to meet their demands.

2. Sources of conflict

   • Change- driven by either internal or external factors:
   • Different values- individuals see the world differently. Lack of acceptance and understanding of these differences can cause conflict.
   • The primary cause of conflict between workers and the management team in the workplace includes:
   • Different interests- workers in certain respects have a lesser stake in business than managers or the shareholders, focus on their individual goals:
   • External factors: any number of external factors can disrupt the workplace: change in the economic environment
   • Poor performance: sometimes people do not do their jobs properly, a situation that can happen at levels of an organisation.
   • Poor communication: sometimes managers and workers clash because lack of communication has created misunderstanding.
   • Insufficient resources: no organisation has unlimited resources. Managers must decide how resources are allocated.

3. Approaches to conflict resolution

   • Conciliation and arbitration
     • sometimes the employer and employee representatives will seek help from a third party to resolve a dispute.
     • this process is often referred to as conciliation and arbitration.
     • the aim of conciliation is to bring together the groups in dispute and help them to find a resolution
     • an independent third party is usually called in to conciliate on the dispute
   • Employee participation and industrial democracy
     • in industrial democracies often partial or complete participation by the workforce in the running of an organisation occurs
     • industrial democracy implies workers control over industry
   • No strike agreement
     • a no strike agreement occurs when a trade union has agreed not to undertake industrial action unless procedural steps have first been undertaken.
     • unions usually agree not to strike when the management team has agreed to certain conditions
     • it can also mean that a union has agreed to rule out any possibility of taking industrial action
   • Single-union agreement
     • one union is recognised as the only representative of employees, it is called a single-union agreement
     • this situation saves managers the difficulties of negotiating with several unions and reduces competition between the unions to get a higher pay increase than rival unions
     • it helps to avoid the disruption to the organisation if only one of several unions is in dispute with managers.
     • when there is more than one union involved, one union can disrupt the production process for the whole organisation

4. Reasons for resistance to change

   • for many reasons, employees may resist change in the workplace
   • change is typically ‘forced’ on them by mangers because of changes in the internal or external environments
   • Discomfort- employees are often happy with the current situation and want to maintain the status quo
   • Fear- changes often makes employees afraid simply because they do not know what will happen
   • Insufficient reward- employees often perceive that implementing the change requires them to do more work for no increase in compensation.
   • Lack of job skills- employees may not have the skills necessary to perform in the change of work environment
   • Loss of control- when managers insist on change, employees feel that they do not have control over their lives
   • Mistrust- employees sometimes do not trust managers
   • Poor communication- employees do not know why the business needs to change
   • Poor timing- change is brought about for the needs of the organisation but might occur at a time that for either professional or personal reasons may fir poorly with the need of employees
   • Prior experience- an employee may have had a bad experience with change in an another organisation
   • Social support- an employee who works with a group of people who resist change may choose to resist for the sake of maintaining social relationships

5. HR strategies to reduce the impact of change

   • Develop a vision for the change process and desired outcomes
   • involve employees in the change process from the outset so that employees are not surprised and so that they do not feel powerless.
   • forecast an allocate the necessary resources to implement the change
   • regularly communicate to all appropriate stakeholders how the change process in unfolding
   • train employees in advance of those changes that affect them directly, which should allow them to see the benefits of change immediately.
   • be aware of the stress that change can cause and support employees as much as possible
   • routinely communicate the benefits of the changes